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Kriegels lead charge in sweep
Tigers have won five of their last six
By Ben Lamparek, Hometown Current
Oct. 1, 2024 4:28 pm
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MARENGO — Lydia and Izzy Kriegel stuffed the stat sheet as Iowa Valley took care of business in a sweep of English Valleys Monday night.
“Overall, it was a good team win,“ Iowa Valley head coach Ross Karsten said. ”Everybody did their part and they were really scrappy defensively.“
The Tigers totaled 16 aces on the night from five different players, which played a key part in building early leads in sets one and three.
“Our serving was great,” Karsten said. “We had a lot of service pressure and were able to capitalize with a lot of free balls sent to us.“
Set one started with a Lydia Kriegel kill and two aces from Izzy Kriegel putting the Tigers up 4-1 early.
English Valleys’ Ava Gehrking had four kills in the set, but the Tigers were able to slowly build their lead through the set.
An out-of-bounds serve sealed the first set victory at 25-15.
Set two was the closest of the three as the Bears got off to an early 9-5 lead after a short rally when the score was tied at 4-4.
The match went back and forth briefly as the Tigers tied things back up at 11.
Back-to-back blocks from Lydia Kriegel and a kill gave the Tigers a lead at 14-12 — which the Tigers held for the rest of the set.
The Tigers pulled away to a 21-15 lead, but the Bears fought back and made things close.
A few Tigers miscues, an ace from Joselyn Bender and kill from Olivia Debevec made things 21-20.
A kill and two aces from Izzy Kriegel made the score 24-21. Lydia Kriegel sealed the set with a block.
Izzy Kriegel had quite the run on serves to start set three.
Five aces and two blocks from Lydia Kriegel and the score was 9-0.
Gehrking ended the drought on a kill for the Bears.
Hadyn Bender got her first kill in the match to make the score 11-5, which was the closest the Bears were able to get the rest of the set.
The lead increased to 10 at 20-10, and the Bears put together one more short rally.
A Gehrking kill and Debevec ace cut the lead to seven.
Lydia Kriegel got one more kill in the set, and Clara Fry added one late before the Tigers finished with a 25-18 win.
The Bears dropped to 5-12 on the season.
The Tigers have now won five of their last six, and the one loss might’ve been the best they have played all season.
“Against Sigourney was the best I think we’ve ever played,” Karsten said on the five-set loss last week.
Building off that, the Tigers went 3-0 over the weekend.
“Getting all three matches was really motivating and we’re peaking at the right time,” Karsten added.